Stay Up With Me
by JustRelax
Summary: Sometimes sleeping is hard to do, so Tina decides not to. Feeling spontaneous one night, she invites Artie along as they both hit the town, looking for something fun to do in the moonlight.
1. Let's Sleep Later

A/N: I know I'm not the best writer in the world, but this idea has been manifesting itself in my head for weeks and I thought, well what could it hurt? I love these two and I really love how sweet they are so I thought I'd try my hand at writing a fic for them. Hopefully you'll like it :)

* * *

The ticking of the clock next to her fills the room and Tina wished it would just shut up. She thinks it's kind of funny how loud the clock can get when she's trying to sleep and how silent itremains during the day. She can't sleep, not a wink, and she guesses it's because she's kind of, sort of a closet insomniac.

She's not even tired. She's kind of bored though, but definitely not tired. Chancing a glance at the clock that kept her awake (Yes, she's blaming the clock) she sees that it's 2 AM. That gives her maybe six hours till school starts, six hours of time to kill. She groans.

Her ipod is sitting next to her clock but for some odd reason Tina doesn't really feel like listening to music, which is weird because Tina always feels like listening to music.

She sighs and glances around her room for something to do, or rather something she could do that won't wake her parents up.

She spots her phone and without really thinking about it she decides to pick it up. Not that she would actually call anyone. Everyone is asleep at 2 AM and Mercedes almost killed her that one time Tina called her...

Tina shuddered at the thought, her friend could be down right scary sometimes.

She scrolls through her contacts anyway because it'll at least give her something to do. And when she passes by Artie's number a vague memory fills her head.

_"I'm kind of an insomniac" _He had said earlier that day. And Tina had smirked because now they had shared something else in common.

She stares at his highlighted name for a bit, wondering if he was awake too, wondering if she should call him. It would definitely give her something to do. And maybe talking to Artie a bit could lull her into a sleep. (Not that he bored her or anything like that) Maybe she could get him to sing a lullaby for her...

She shook her head at the silly, but secretly appealing thought, and hit the call button anyway. Artie was her (best) friend and they talked all the time. What did she have to worry about?

The phone beeped, and with every beep of the dial tone Tina grew more and more nervous. Immediately thoughts of, "He's sleeping!" and "This is a bad idea!" rang in her head. And right as she was about to hang up there was an answer on the other side of the line.

"Tina?" Artie greeted, he sounded confused but not sleepy.

"I didn't wake you did I?" She whispered just in case.

"Nope, insomniac remember? What are you doing up at...two in the morning?"

Tina relaxed as he said this, she knew he would be okay with her calling, he always is. Nothing to worry about. "Oh, I couldn't sleep."

"You don't even sound tired."

"Neither do you."

"That's because I'm not."

She rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore the comment. "What were you doing then? Before I called you."

"Nothing really, just doing a little bit of reading."

"What book?"

"The one we have to read in english, 'The Great Gatsby' Have you read it yet?"

"Heh, no."

"'Course not."

Tina grinned into the phone, and the two of them lapsed into a nice little conversation about nothing in particular.

Fifteen minutes later, she was staring at her feet, trying to think of a response to Artie, when an idea struck her, and it was out of her mouth before she could really think about it.

"You wanna do something?"

"Do what?" Artie asked surprised, their previous conversation forgotten

"I don't know. Go somewhere?"

"Tee, it's 2 AM. Where can we go at 2 AM?" Artie sounded rather amused.

"Who cares?"

She was feeling oddly adventurous now, and the more she thought about it the more she wanted to do it. "Come on Artie, _pleeease" _she whined.

"Alright, fine." He said in a mock exasperated voice.

Tina let out a whispered "Yippie" and a quick "I'll pick you up in 10" before hanging up.

She swept her hair up into a quick ponytail, slipped on her converse and snuck downstairs quietly, careful not to wake her parents. She figured she'd borrow their car and that they wouldn't miss it if they didn't know it was gone. (And besides the keys were sitting on the kitchen counter almost begging to be taken) Tina grabbed the keys without another thought and silently exited the house through the back door.

A few minutes later, Tina was all buckled up and on the way to Artie's humming along to the radio.

_"Tonight's gonna be a good good night"_


	2. Sleepless Minds

A/N: Thank you for all the kind words. This is the first time I attempted a story like this and I'm glad you guys had such a positive reaction towards it.

I'm not a big fan of this chapter to be honest. It's a little odd, the ending's a bit rushed and I struggled a bit with tenses. But, I think, for the most part everything is in order. If it isn't please don't hesitate to tell me. And don't be afraid to tell me something you don't like about the story or my writing style, I'd love to hear it. I'm new at this so any sort of help is appreciated.

* * *

Tina's standing in front of the door to the Abrams' house thinking about how she should approach the situation. She can't just ring the doorbell and she had left her phone in the car. Looking around a bit for in hopes that something to spark an idea she realizes that Artie's room was on the first floor, which meant she could probably just knock on his window.

She walks around to the back of the house trying to make as little noise as possible and when she finds the room she's looking for she notices two things. His lights are on and he has his back towards the her.

She knocks on the window frame and he jumps in his chair clearly surprised by this. Tina lifts the window up (he seems to have this habit of keeping it unlocked) and smiles at him.

"Hey Tee." He greets rolling over. He's wearing a T-Shirt and Pajama bottoms, which is different from his usual attire. Tina knows he doesn't sleep in his suspenders and sweater vests but she supposes the thought has crossed her mind once or twice before.

"Hey Artie. Ready to go?" She whispers into the room.

"Yeah sure, but hey do me a favor and take my guitar." He whispers too, before twisting in his chair to grab his guitar from where it lay abandoned on his bed. He hands it to her before she even has a chance to answer.

It doesn't really matter though, she wouldn't have said no and he knew it.

She swings the guitar strap around her and Artie frowns a bit.

Tina's confused. She looks at the guitar on her back and wonders if she did something wrong.

"What?" She asks turing back to face him when she sees that everything is in order.

"Aren't you cold?" and then she realizes that his frown is actually just a frown of concern, and she feels something grow warm inside her at the thought.

She looks herself over and sees that she's also in her nightwear and that it's slightly chilly out, but she shrugs in response. She doesn't really want to drive all the way back home just to grab a jacket.

He's still frowning though. And then, without a word, he wheels over to one of his drawers and throws something at her.

It lands on her face and she has to pull it away before realizing it was a grey hoody.

"Well look at that. Artie Abrams owns a Hoody, who'd a thunk it?"

"Har Har." He responds and rolls away out of the room.

Tina laughs to herself before going back to the car. She opens the backdoor, carefully setting Artie's precious guitar inside before seeing Artie rolling out of the front door locking it behind him.

(She briefly wonders if she remembered to lock her doors.)

Artie pulls himself into his seat as Tina folds up his chair and stores in the trunk. They are both pros at this, they've done it a dozen times before.

It's only when she's settled inside the car that she tugs on Artie's hoody. It fits her quite snugly and it smells like him, even though she's sure she's never seen him in it before.

"How'd you get the car?" He asks as Tina starts the car.

"What my parents don't know won't hurt um." She answers.

"Well aren't you the little rebel."

"And don't you forget it"

Artie chuckles rolling his eyes, "so...where are we off to?"

Tina looks at the road and thinks for a second before answering "I have no idea."

"Well that's helpful." he remarks dryly

"Shut up." She laughs swatting him playfully.

He sticks his tongue out at her and she laughs even harder.

They drive out of the residential district and into the town singing along to a Beatles CD Artie brought with him. Artie points out a nice little 24 hour diner in the middle of "Hey Jude" and Tina stops the car as they go in.

The diner is completely unoccupied by customers because this is Lima for god sakes and not only that but this is Lima at 2 AM when no one's awake.

The waitress doesn't even try to hide her blatant stare as they seat themselves in a little corner table. She hands them the menu and gives Artie another curious glance before turning to Tina.

"Anything to drink?" She asks.

"Coffee?" Tina looks at Artie who shrugs. "Two coffees please."

"Alright, be back in a sec."

Artie raises an eyebrow at Tina "Coffee at 2 AM? That's an interesting choice."

"I'm not going to be sleeping anyway, no use being tired."

"Good point." He picks up the menu and skims it before responding, "I'm not all that hungry right now actually."

"Yeah me either." Tina answers, "The food doesn't look all that..."

"Yeah, I know." He interrupts,

Tina grins.

The coffee arrives then, interrupting their exchange. The woman huffs at them when they tell her they are fine with just the coffee and returns to her position behind the bar reading a magazine. The radio is turned up and John Mayer fills the small diner. Artie taps his fingers to the beat and Tina takes a generous gulp from the cup in her hands.

"Good?" He asks.

"Mmm Hmmm." She nods closing her eyes. "Absolutely yummy."

He takes a sip from his own cup and grimaces. "Egh, too bitter" he says reaching for a sugar packet.

"So..." Tina starts a few seconds later when he fixes his coffee to his liking, "How long have you been an insomniac?"

"Hmm?" He meets her eye a bit lazily, "Oh," He blinks at her twice before the question registers, "um, since I was eight."

Something immediately clicks in Tina's head, "But that was when-"

"The Accident yeah,"

Tina doesn't say anything so Artie continues on.

"After the accident I started having trouble sleeping, and sometimes when I did sleep I'd have nightmares. The nightmares went away after a while but I've been an insomniac since."

"And your doctors haven't said anything about it?" Tina's a little concerned.

"Well, no, I guess I should be more-" He pauses thinking it over for a second, "Okay, so I guess I'm not _really _an insomniac, I just -"

He pauses again, and shifts in his seat,

"It's not like I can't sleep, it's just that I don't sleep. You know?"

Tina nods, because she gets it. "It's just easier to call yourself an insomniac."

He smiles, "Yeah, that's exactly it. No explanation needed."

They lull into a nice silence both of them sipping their respective drinks until Artie interrupts.

"What about you? Why are you up tonight?"

Tina shrugs, not really sure herself, "Couldn't sleep"

"Okay..." He drags the two syllable word on longer than necessary "Any particular reason why?"

Tina shrugs again, "I don't know, I just didn't feel like sleeping tonight."

"Too many thoughts?"

"Maybe."

"Was I one of them?" He waggles his eyebrows.

Tina scoffs, "Pshh, no" _yes._

He rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything, and Tina can't get over how nice this is. Everything feels so relaxed and comfortable with Artie and she never wants that to change. It just feels so right to be with him now, sharing a drink in the middle of the night.

They change the topic, talking about school, and glee club (mainly glee club). And how Finn seems to be less angry now than before and speculating where Quinn is living now.

Eventually, when the conversation slows down, Artie stretches a bit, rolling his neck around before reaching into his pocket, "We should go." He says

Tina chances a glance at the clock that read 3:05 and nods.

He pulls out some money but Tina stops him.

"Don't even think about it." She says pulling out her own money from the pocket of her sweatpants.

He shakes his head, "I got this."

"No, it's alright Artie, let me."

They bicker for a bit and then Artie offers a compromise. "Look, we'll do it this way, I'll pay for yours and you can pay for mine. Deal?"

Tina's smile is sweet as she agrees.

Artie replaces a chair he had tossed aside to make room for himself as Tina pushes hers in. The lady behind the bar throws them one last nasty glare as they leave and Tina is secretly glad they didn't tip her.

She looks over at Artie and sees that he feels the same way. They burst out laughing as the door closes behind them and Tina wonders what's going to happen next.


	3. Tear Up The Lot

When the fresh air hits Tina it's as if someone unleashes a beast inside of her, a giggly bubbly beast, but a beast all the same. She skips to the middle of the street and spins around on her heel with her arms open, nearly falling over and Artie laughs openly at her. "I think the caffine was a bad idea."

She sticks her tongue out at him and he joins her wordlessly, spinning around skillfully in his chair.

She knows that spinning around in the middle of the street is probably a bad idea. That if a car came by it might not see them, but she honestly can't find it in herself to care right now. She's having fun and it's just nice to not worry about something for a while.

The streetlights reminds her of a spotlight and Tina feels like she's on stage again. She's reliving sectionals in her head and her smile gets wider.

"Okay," Artie says breaking Tina out of her reverie, "We can't spin around all night, what's next?"

"Well of course we can!" Tina spins around one more time just to prove her point.

"Yeah okay, so you can, but I'd rather not."

"Fine" she pouts, "be that way." Then she playfully stomps off into another direction. She kind of wishes she'd worn her combat boots because boots make for better stomping shoes than her converses.

"Hey!" Artie calls from behind her, "Where are you going?"

"No idea."

Tina thinks it's kind of nice. She likes talking to Artie and staying up late. She supposes she could get used to this.

They end up in the parking lot of a local Safeway. Tina finds it a little odd at how empty it is. She's glad she's not agoraphobic. She's about to comment on this when she spies an abandoned shopping cart nearby. Without another thought she sprints towards it and jumps onto the bottom railing. The shopping cart rolls her away so far that Artie is out of breath when he catches up a second later.

"What are you doing Tee?" He sounds amused and confused at the same time.

She puts one foot on the ground, the other still resting on the bottom railing and looks over at Artie.

"Riding a shopping cart" she answers as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Shouldn't you have like...outgrown that by now?"

She lets out a dramatic gasp putting her hand over her mouth, "Artie!" she says, "How could you say such a thing."

He rolls his eyes.

"Race you to the other side of the lot?" She asks.

"Oh you are _so _on."

Despite his out of breath state a second before, Artie still wins.

"That's two for zero Tee, maybe you should give up this whole racing thing all together."

Tina crosses her arms over her chest and pouts again, trying to stare Artie down.

It doesn't work.

She gives up the act, and looks around the lot before her eyes land on the shopping cart. A wicked grin spreads across her face as an idea forms in her mind. She looks over at Artie who seems nervous.

"Tee...what are you thinking?"

"You want a ride?" She asks pointing to the cart

"What?" He says incredulously

"Do you want a ride?" She asks again.

"What?"

She sighs, "In the cart, do you want a ride in the cart?"

He shakes his head, "No thanks."

"Oh come on Artie. When's the next time you'll get a chance like this?"

"Tina, it's a shopping cart."

"What, you don't trust me?"

"It's not that Tee, it's just...it's a shopping cart."

"_Pleeeeease_, just try it. For me."

He huffs in exhasperation, "Alright, fine, but I won't like it."

"You'll love it."

Tina lets out a little squee of excitement and positions the cart by Artie who still seems unsure. He locks the brakes on his wheelchair and looks up at Tina nervously, "Are you sure about this?" He asks, "I may look like a scrawny nerd boy-"

Tina snorts, "You are a scrawny nerdboy."

"-But I'm not as light as I look"

Tina waves him off.

It takes seven minutes of awkward lifting, shuffling, and adjusting(and picking up the shopping cart when they knocked it over) to get Artie in the cart. Making sure he's secure, or at least as secure as he's going to be in a shopping cart, Tina walks to the handles and prepares to push. Artie stops her before she can start, shifting himself around to face Tina as he asks with a slightly worried, and slightly accusatory tone "You're not going to run me into a tree or something are you?"

"Artie, quit worrying, it's only dangerous when there's people around."

He still seems unsure but he nods and turns himself around to face the front.

Tina runs while pushing the cart, not really caring about the direction they were going. Artie turns around and Tina notices his wide grin, she runs even faster. They start to really get going when an idea sprouts in her brain.

"I know that look, Tina whatever you're thinking of, it's a bad idea." Artie's turned around again, staring right at her. Tina's michevious grin just widens.

"Oh no no no" He says in realization, he knows, she thinks. Her grin couldn't get any bigger.

"No no no no NO. Don't you Dare. TINA COHEN-CHANG DON'T YOU-"

Tina realeases her grip.

"DAMN YOU TINA!" Artie wails as the cart goes off on it's own. Tina's out of breath as she watches him grip the sides of the cart, bracing himself for an inevitable crash.

The cart tips over and Artie tumbles out on the concrete. Tina shouts a quick "Oh my god Artie!" and rushes over. A string of apologies are spluttered out of her mouth the entire way there but when she arrives she discovers Artie laughing. Her apologies come to an abrupt end as she stands watching him speechless.

When his laughter subsides he lets out a loud whoop that echos across the empty lot and says "That was the most fun I've had in a while."

And then Tina bursts out into her own laughing fit. She isn't entirely sure if it's fueled by her relief, the lack of sleep, or something else but it's pretty damn funny. She feels her knees give way beneath her as she falls on the ground next to Artie who joins her laughing spree while attempting pushing the cart off of him.

When they finally catch their breaths she finds herself clutching Artie for support.

"Are you hurt?" She asks, still concerned

"Nah, just a few scrapes. I'm a big boy Tina."

"Could have fooled me."

He rolls his eyes and ignores this "I think that's enough of that for one night though."

Tina nods, "What time is it?"

Artie shrugs.

The conversation ends and Tina's head is still resting on Artie's shoulder where it had fallen when they were laughing. She closes her eyes.

He nudges her a few moments later, and Tina looks up.

"Sleepy?" He asks.

"Not a chance." She bounces up onto her feet to prove a point and looks around. She notices Artie's chair is on the other side of the parking lot. "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere."

Artie scoffs as she runs off.

She was going to push the wheelchair over to where Artie was but somehow she found herself wheeling over in his chair instead. She's a little worried about his reaction but when she arrives he doesn't seem to mind in the slightest. He actually has a goofy grin on his face, but Tina doesn't question it, she just smiles at him as she gets off.

Artie climbs into his chair and Tina positions herself behind him. Artie turns around to stare up at her, "So..." He starts, "What now?"

* * *

The shopping cart idea came to me when my friend was telling me about how she used to push shopping carts into the lagoon by the Safeway for fun. I wanted them to try that but I don't think there are any lagoons in Lima so this was the replacement. :P I hope you liked it.

If all goes as planned, the next chapter will feature a cameo sighting of one of their fellow glee members. Any guesses who?


	4. The World is Waking

A/N: I am honestly not a big fan of this chapter. There's something off about it. It's also longer than I originally intended it to be, it was supposed to be two separate chapters but it's not long enough to be split up so I figured one long chapter is better than two short ones.

* * *

They decide to go back and get the car, Artie mumbles something about the waitress vandalizing it, Tina laughs at his little remark but picks up her pace...just in case.

Her dad would kill her if he ever found out she borrowed his car in the middle of the night and she would be completely obliterated if he ever found out she was out in the middle of the night with a boy.

She hadn't really thought about it before but now she wonders what would happen if her parents decide to just pop in her room, it occurs to her that she probably should have thought this through before they went out on their little excursion.

"Hey Artie,"

He twists his torso around to face her, "hmm?"

"Er, I was wondering...what would happen if you got caught?" She asks sheepishly.

"Got caught doing what?" And he looks genuinely confused.

She briefly wonders how a boy so smart can be so clueless.

"Got caught out with me, tonight. What if your parents go into your room and find out you're missing?"

"Oh, uh I dunno. Why?"

"_Why?_" She echoes him incredulously "Did you seriously just ask why?" She stops pushing him, completely flabbergasted.

"Um...yes?" He spins his chair around to face her and then adjusts his glasses like he did when they had shared their first kiss.

"Aren't you afraid you'd get in trouble or something?"

Now it's his turn to be shocked, "You're worrying about this _now_?"

"Well, I was just thinking about my parents and then...oh nevermind, what's done is done."

Artie shoots her an amused (and slightly confused) grin at her before Tina spins him around and begins pushing him again. She can hear him mumbling something about how weird she is but chooses not the comment.

They approach a 7-Eleven and Artie notices a large black truck parked across 4 parking spots.

"Isn't that...?" his voice trails off as he gestures towards the truck.

Tina stares at the truck for a minute before it clicks in her head, "Yeah..." She says, she's curious too.

There leaning against the wall beside the entrance was a lone mohawked man. "Should we...?" Artie doesn't finish the sentence, he doesn't have to.

"No." Tina says shaking her head, "Probably not."

Puck's holding something in his hand, drinking out of it occasionally, Tina deduces from his stance that their fellow glee clubber wanted to be be left alone.

Artie nods his head, seemingly reaching the same conclusion. Tina pulls Artie's hood over her head and glances down as she pushes him past. Artie seems to understand, she wants to pass by unnoticed.

It doesn't work.

"What are you dorks doing here?" Puck's voice calls out into the night. He's squinting in their direction, but there's no real malice in his voice.

"Just passing by." Artie calls back.

Tina suppresses the urge to thump him on the head.

She doesn't say anything. As nice as Puck was during glee club, (and even then he was kind of an asshole) she hadn't really interacted with him outside of the club.

Puck snorts from where he stands, "It's like four in the morning."

Tina wonders why everything seems louder at night, because even though Puck is speaking at a normal volume it still seems loud and it kind of scares her.

Artie takes control of his wheels and rolls over to Puck, Tina wants to protest but reexamines Puck instead.

Her eyes widen when she realizes she read his stance wrong. Puck actually seems more thoughtful than intimidating (well, for now at least.) She just doesn't know him well enough to tell the difference at first glance. With this thought in her head, Tina joins the boys.

Puck's in his letterman jacket, one hand in his pocket, the other holding onto a bottle of beer. She can't read the label because his large hand is covering it.

"We couldn't sleep" She hears Artie in the background and her head twists to meet his.

He seems relaxed, Tina notes.

Puck shrugs in response. He doesn't seem to really care. Tina's eyes meet his face and she notices something that she didn't notice before. Puck's eye is bruised and swollen, and his lip isn't any better.

She looks at Artie in surprise. He notices it too.

"What happened to your face?" They ask at the same time.

"Nothing." He grumbles.

They shoot Puck identical looks of disbelief.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it." He sighs in defeat.

Tina's gaze once again meets Artie's who looks curious. They both silently agree not to ask. It's none of their business anyway.

"It's really freaky when you two do that you know?" Puck remarks

"Do what?" They both ask confused.

"That!" He exclaims gesturing his free hand at them, "It's weird."

The three of them fall silent for a while. The only sound accompanying them is the occasional swish from the bottle Puck is holding.

The longer they stand there in silence, the more awkward Tina feels.

Puck downs the last of his bottle and tosses it aside. It shatters on the concrete.

Tina jumps a little at the sound.

"Sorry." Puck apologizes, before finally moving away from the wall. He unlocks his car and throws something at Artie, it lands on his lap. "See you guys losers later." He says as he starts his car, but once again there's no spite in his voice. Before he pulls away he tilts his chin towards Artie and nods slightly.

Tina thinks she's missed something.

Puck zooms out of the parking spots faster than anyone should and drives away.

Once he's out of sight Tina looks over at Artie.

"What was that all about?"

He shrugs and holds up the bag on his lap. "Gummy bear?" He offers.

Tina laughs and accepts, he pours a small handful into her hand.

They continue their walk to the car, Artie rolling beside her this time. They exchange their theories about Puck's face. Tina believes Puck must have gotten into a scuffle with his football buddies. Artie disagrees and suggests that Puck was jumped by a bunch of woodland creatures. Tina could only shake her head at him.

They approach the diner and the car. Tina sneaks a peak into the diner and notices the unfriendly waitress sleeping right on the counter. She points this out to Artie who snorts. Once they get settled into the car, Artie reaches over and honks the horn several times.

"ARTIE!" Tina shouts attempting to bat his hands away, "STOP!"

The waitress charges out of the diner.

"Shit!" Tina curses, fumbling with the keys. She ends up dropping them.

"Hurry Tee!" Artie says, but he doesn't sound as scared as she was. In fact Artie seems to be enjoying this.

The waitress is about a foot away from the car when she finally gets the key into the ignition. Tina punches the gas pedal in a way that would even impress Puck. Artie laughs as he lurches forward.

Thank god for seatbelts.

The waitress chases the car and Tina runs a redlight or two before the woman is out of sight. Tina sighs in relief and slows down, allowing her to smack Artie upside the head.

"Ow!" He complains, his hands flying to protect his head, "What was that for?"

"I hate you Abrams." She sends her best glare his way.

"Oh come on, you know you had fun."

She says nothing, still glaring.

"Consider it pay back for the shopping cart."

She rolls her eyes and focuses on the road once more.

He's laughs again.

"Okay Abrams, where to?"

"Are you going to call me that all night?"

"Maybe."

This time, he rolls his eyes at her instead of responding. He takes this time to glance around the car before noticing his guitar.

"Wanna go to the park?" He says finally addressing her question. "We can bring my guitar."

"Sure, sounds like a good idea." She pauses for a second, "Abrams."

He groans and playfully shoves her.

"Woah, Woah, Woah! No distracting the driver, do you want us to end in a ditch?"

"You're driving, we're going to end up in the ditch either way."

She smacks him again.

They fall silent for the rest of the ride, listening to where they left off at on the CD. Tina briefly glances at the clock and realizes that it was much later - or earlier if that's the way you want to look at it - than she thought. Puck was right when he had said it was around 4 in the morning, but she had no idea it was almost 4:30 in the morning. School starts in a little bit, and she needs to return the car before her parents woke up.

But they still have time.

Tina parks and exits the car, pulling Artie's wheelchair out of the trunk and setting it in front of him before retrieving the guitar. She locks the car, and then together, they wander into the park. They find a nice park bench, Artie hands her the gummy bears that she forgot about before transferring himself to the bench. When he's settled she hands him the guitar but keeps the gummy bears.

And then he strums a familiar tune and she nods her head to the beat whilst chewing on the candies.

"Come on, sing!" he says nudging her

She shakes her head pointing to her mouth.

He nods and sings in her place. His low voice soothing as the first verse of "True Colors" is sung.

She joins him in the chorus.

They do a rather bad rendition of it, to be honest, because they're too busy giggling and joking around to actually sing it well. They don't really care though, they're having fun and that's all that matters.

The two of them sing four or five of their glee songs together, and Tina thinks that if Rachel were listening to them right now they'd probably be scolded for not taking the songs seriously.

Artie's in the middle of singing Tina's audition song "I Kissed a Girl" and Tina's in the middle of laughing when she spots someone jogging towards them.

Artie continues to sing as Tina tries to identify the person.

The jogger sees them and abruptly stops pulling out her earbuds to listen to Artie's attempt at Katy Perry.

It's Santana, and her perfect eyebrow is arched in their direction. Artie doesn't notice, he's been singing with his eyes closed.

Tina motions for Santana to join them surprising the both of them, and she does, a bit cautiously but she does.

When Artie finishes singing he's shocked to find Santana standing by Tina.

"What are you singing?" She asks laughing.

Artie flushes beat red, he looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

Tina decides to spare him any further embarrassment by explaining "We're singing our audition songs."

"He auditioned with Katy Perry?" Santana says in disbelief.

"Nope, that would be me." Tina says before Artie can even respond.

Artie just nods, a little too enthusiastically.

"What are you two doing up so early?" Santana questions

Artie opens his mouth to respond but Santana stops him, holding up her hand, "Wait," She says, "What are you two doing up so early in your pajamas?"

"We couldn't sleep." Artie explains.

Tina feels like they've said that phrase a million times in the last couple of hours.

"What are you doing up?" Tina asks.

"Oh." Santana says, she shifts her weight leaning on her left side instead of her right. "I like to run before school."

"Isn't it kind of early for that? It's still kind of dark." Artie inquires

Santana shrugs, "Early Cheerios practice" is all she offers.

Tina and Artie accept this answer as an awkward silence settles in.

"So..."Tina starts, attempting to break it, "What was your audition song?"

"Oh, I uh, auditioned with Quinn and Brittany, we did 'Say a little Prayer'"

Artie brightens up and strums the first few chords to the song.

Tina shoots Santana an encouraging smile. She doesn't know the song, so she sits back as she listens to the other girl sing. She never realized how well Santana sung until now. The cheerio usually just blended in with the rest of the ensemble.

"You have a pretty voice" Tina compliments when the song is over.

"Thanks." And it sounds genuine,

"You should sing more" Artie pipes up

Santana smiles,

Artie offers her the handful of gummy bears he has in his hands. She declines, he shrugs, "More for me." He mumbles before proceeding to eat them. He doesn't eat the red ones though, instead he hands them over to Tina.

They're her favorites.

Santana watches the exchange curiously before glancing down at her watch. "I should go." She says, "See you at glee."

And just like that, she's gone.

"Well." Tina says, "That was,"

"Weird?"

"I was going to say awkward but yeah, weird works too."

"She wasn't as bitchy as usual."

"Yeah, she was surprisingly nice."

"That's why it was weird."

"I think you're right. Bitchy cheerio Santana I know how to deal with but nice Santana?"

"It's a whole different ball game."

"Yup."

The conversation dies and Artie absentmindedly plucks the strings on his guitar as he stares out into space. Tina wonders how he can play so well without even thinking about it. She watches him for a while, so unobservant of her surroundings that she doesn't even notice how the sun was starting to rise slowly and the darkness ebbing away.

"Tina," he's whispering.

"Hmm?"

"We should head back."

She looks around and notices how the night had undoubtedly turned into morning and agrees. The streetlights are still on and it was still kind of dark but she could see the sun peaking out dimly from the horizon.

They trudge (well she trudges, Artie just wheels) back to the car and start on their way home.

She doesn't really want it to end, and she can tell he doesn't either. She drives a little slower than she has to and a few cars actually join her on the road. She wants to delay the end as much as she can.

Artie doesn't complain.

It's almost six when she reaches Artie's house and the streetlights on his block flicker off as she walks him to the door. The whole world is waking up now.

"Tonight was fun." He says quietly in that cute dorky tone of his. He doesn't want to wake his parents

Tina leans down towards him, smiling. "Thanks for staying up with my Artie."

"Anytime." He breathes.

She hugs him and kisses him on the cheek, then turns around to leave.

Artie doesn't let her, he catches her wrist and pulls her back to him before capturing her lips in a kiss.

It's better than the first kiss. This one is longer and sweeter and Tina is completely surprised. She fully intended to just leave, too shy to initiate the kiss she wanted, but she can't lie to herself and say she didn't hope that this night would end in a kiss. It almost seemed wrong to end without one.

Apparently he feels the same way.

* * *

A/N: I didn't originally intend for Artie and Tina to kiss. But I couldn't let it go without a kiss, especially after that promo? I just had to do it.

There's one last chapter, an epilogue of sorts.


End file.
